• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Greater Yellow-headed Vulture - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Arthur Grosset
Mato Grosso, Brazil, March 2003
Cathartes melambrotus

Identification

64–76 cm (25-30 in)

  • Bright yellow bare head skin
  • Black plumage

Similar Species

Photo © by Stanley Jones
Chuncho Lodge, Madre de Dios Department, Peru, August 2018

There can be difficulty in separating Greater Yellow-headed from Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture but, when perched, the wingtips of lessers extend way beyond the tail tip, and in flight have very narrow, long wings with high contrast between coverts and flight feathers. Greater YHV flies on flat wings.

For discussion on separating this species from Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture see reference[1].

Distribution

South America: found in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species[2].

Habitat

Mostly in forest.

Behaviour

Usually flies low over canopy to find food using its sense of smell. May at times be seen soaring very high above the forest.

Diet

Scavenges on dead mammals of the forest, such as monkeys, sloths and opossums.

Breeding

There is very little information available. It is believed that they lay 2 eggs.

References

  1. Thread discussing identification of the two Yellow-headed Vultures
  2. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  3. Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156
  4. Erize et al. 2006 Birds of South America, non-passerines. Princeton Illustrated Checklists, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. ISBN 0-691-12688-7
  5. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved September 2014 and October 2018)

Recommended Citation

External Links

Back
Top